Andrew Maxwell, Bruce Carter, David Williams, II, and Chris Wooten, from the Boys and Girls of the Emerald Coast prepare to move furniture donated to the organization by the Pensacola News Journal. (Photo: Tony Giberson Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

Pensacola News Journal Building Maintenance Supervisor Travis Motley, left center, talks with Boys and Girls Club of the Emerald Coast workers while the organization picks-up a load of donated furniture from the newspaper Wednesday afternoon. (Photo: Tony Giberson Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

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Andrew Maxwell, Bruce Carter, David Williams, II, and Chris Wooten, from the Boys and Girls of the Emerald Coast prepare to move furniture donated to the organization by the Pensacola News Journal.(Photo: Tony Giberson, Tony Giberson/tgiberson@pnj.com)

For many kids in West Pensacola's Brownsville neighborhood, the Boys and Girls Club offers a home away from home.

The club — located on H Street — provides after-school and summer programs to inner-city kids. The programs offered there — including career development, tutoring and character education — teach them skills needed to succeed in the real world, but more than that, they keep them off the street and give them hope.

"In the area we're in, some of these kids don't have a bright moment in their day," Program Director Bruce Carter said Wednesday. "The club gives them that moment. It helps turn the whole community arround ... We educate them, and when you're educated, it brings about change."

Carter is hoping things will be made even brighter by the News Journal's donation of a large amount of furniture and office equipment. On Wednesday, Carter and a few of his fraternity brothers spent the afternoon loading the goods into a moving trailer at the paper's Romana Street offices.

The News Journal staff will vacate the building in less than two weeks, moving to new, more modern digs at the northeast corner of Garden and Palafox streets. News Journal publisher Terry Horne said the paper would be purchasing new furniture when the staff makes the jump. Rather than auction the old equipment, Horne decided to donate much of it to the Boys and Girls Club, which Horne said fit with the paper's editorial values.

"Our No. 1 priority is k-12 education and giving kids hope for the future," Horne said Wednesday. "... We see it as something that can solve so many problems. Improving our educational system will have an impact on crime. It will have an impact on the economy and, I think, ultimately will let us put an end to the generational poverty that plagues some areas of our community."

Club Director Leslie Hunter-Huff said she cried when she learned about the donation, which had been badly needed. Prior to this week, Hunter-Huff had only three tables in the club's lunch room — too few to accomodate the many students attending the club's after-school programs — and many of the chairs were dingy or broken. Now, the students will be able to dine in more comfort.

"That's exactly what we needed," Hunter-Huff said, "something clean and nice so our kids can sit and eat their lunch."

She said the new equipment would provide a solid foundation for students like Daishawn Kyser to learn and grow. Kyser, 18, started attending after-school programs at the club two years ago. Now, he assists the staff in teaching younger kids.

"It helps you not do stupid stuff," he said of the club. By "stupid stuff," Kyser 'meant things like stealing, fighting and getting involved in gangs. Kyser will graduate next year from Pensacola State College's adult high school and hopes to go on to study sports medicine, but he said he probably wouldn't be in school today if it weren't for the club. "It's a home for kids to come to keep them out of trouble," he said.

Horne said he hoped the paper's donation would help the organization better fulfill its mission and help more kids like Kyser become productive members of society.

"Giving hope to a kid — There's not a much higher calling than that," he said.